In the spring of 2025, it was announced that Foo Fighters would be moving forward without drummer Josh Freese.
“The Foo Fighters called me Monday night to let me know they’ve decided ‘to go in a different direction with their drummer.’ No reason was given,” Freese wrote in a statement posted to Instagram then. “Regardless, I enjoyed the past two years with them, both on and off stage, and I support whatever they feel is best for the band.”
Freese first started playing with the Foos in 2022 when he was one of several guest drummers for tribute concerts held in honor of the Foo Fighters’ late drummer, Taylor Hawkins. Soon after, he became a permanent member of the group.
Then in 2024, the entire band took a break from touring.
“In those six or seven months, as a band, we talked about what to do next, a new direction, and thought, ‘OK, let’s call Josh and let him know that we are going to move on with a different drummer,'” Dave Grohl recently explained in an interview with Apple Music 1 (via NME), stressing that the choice “didn’t happen overnight.”
“We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn’t just me,” he continued. “Basically, we called Josh, and were like, ‘Hey man, that was awesome. That was such a blast, thank you so much, but we are going to move on and find another drummer.'”
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A few months later, it was revealed that longtime Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin would join the Foo Fighters, while Freese would return to NIN, a band he’d served as a touring member for between 2005 and 2008.
“Since then, there’s been a lot of talk about it,” Grohl said, “but I think Josh said it best when he said that he didn’t feel our music really resonated with him, and that’s really important.”
Indeed, Freese had previously spoken publicly about the difficulty of his position as the new drummer after a devastating event.
“It wasn’t music that I really resonated with,” he told The New York Times in August of 2025. “I’m coming in as Dave Grohl’s drummer, and the guy that’s supposed to save the day after the beloved Taylor Hawkins died,” adding that the pressure made him feel “like I had to be firing on all cylinders all the time.”
How Foo Fighters Continued Without Taylor Hawkins
Hawkins was 50 years old when he was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Bogota, Colombia, where Foo Fighters were scheduled to perform later that evening. He was declared dead on the scene and it was later determined to be the result of a drug overdose.
Since then, Grohl says, figuring out his band’s path hasn’t been easy.
“We had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years and, beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit. He was this incredible human being and he was our brother. He was our best friend,” he said. “So, continuing after Taylor was really complicated, not just for us, but for any drummer that was going to come in to like, you know, fill his shoes. … We always talk about him every f***ing day. In everything we do we want to have that energy – we want to have that energy for Taylor.”
Foo Fighters are slated to begin a stadium tour on Aug. 4 in Toronto.
Foo Fighters Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide
Dave Grohl-fronted group has rotated through several members over the years.
Gallery Credit: Jen Austin
